my problem with "Fringe"
Mood: okay
Posted on 2008-12-02 10:44:00
Words: 172

We watched two episodes yesterday and it's moving into "one or two dumb moments and it's gone" territory. Here's why (may contains spoilers up until two weeks ago's episode):
I was hoping it would be more of a serial show, like Lost or BSG. But, it's not. It seems like (and I only watched two episodes yesterday so this may be biased by those) every episode ends with something kinda surprising! And then nothing really happens with that in the future, with the exception of the pilot.

The main stories are generally OK, but they seem to be falling into a pattern of artifically setting up the need to do something crazy, like "this guy won't tell us how to save this FBI agent unless we get to ask this other guy a question. Oh, but we just killed him so now you have to get the answer while he's dead." None of this really has to do with why the FBI agent is dying!

Anyone else watching? What do y'all think?

4 comments

Comment from djedi:
2008-12-03T10:17:34+00:00
I'm watching :P, and I agree. The last couple of episodes in themselves have actually been surprisingly uninteresting despite their trying to shock the audience with their crazy science. The overarching plot has made no progress at all. It's almost like those really sucky seasons/time periods in Lost and BSG.

I think they haven't decided yet whether this will just be an episodic show or a serial.

Comment from tehfanboi:
2008-12-03T10:21:47+00:00
I am not watching fringe, but I would like to point out that Babylon 5 (widely noted in sci fi circles for having a nice overarching plot) was very much the same way. Every episode in the first season was very much like a stand alone episode with little or no apparent connection to other events. But in season 2 it all started to pull those lines closer and closer together and suddenly two completely isolated episodes from the first season laid important groundwork for a kickass episode in season 4.

Not saying that Fringe is the same way, but it could be. The first season can be tricky because they have to develop characters and see if they will be continued. So writers and producers are reluctant to dive into a long complicated story like in BSG or Lost not sure how long of a airing they will have.

Comment from abstractseaweed:
2008-12-06T22:14:29+00:00
Yep. It might not be so bad if the acting made up for it, but the character development is mediocre. In particular I find Peter Bishop's accent to sound contrived. Maybe it is his real accent (I've been intending to watch some of his other films) but whenever he says "sweetheart" I cringe because it sounds so scripted. I am, however, intrigued by the Nina Sharp character and I'll probably keep watching to see how the company's role in everything develops. So far I would agree that there has been very little progress in that story.

Comment from abstractseaweed:
2008-12-10T21:46:21+00:00
I just finished watching the three most recent episodes, and I have to revise my assessment. They are getting better about tying in past events, and I am intrigued by Olivia's recent development with Jack's memories. Bringing in an old female friend of Peter helps a bit with his character development, although I still feel like the Peter Bishop character is most lacking. I would classify episodes 1 though 9 as the "little hill" that they needed to get over before it could really take off. Now I'm looking forward to more.

This backup was done by LJBackup.